A Bedtime Story for Your Heart

My nine year old son cleaned off his book shelf last month and put all of the books he didn't want into a "give away" box.

I brought that box into school yesterday to donate to various primary classroom libraries, but decided to take a look through the books he deemed too "babyish" for him first. I set the box down on the table in the teacher's lounge and dug through it. Lo and behold there it was The Emperor's New Clothes. You know, the 6 inch "Golden Books" version!

"So?" you ask.

SO, that was his favorite book for a long time. I read that thing before a hundred of bedtimes, I'm sure.

Well, okay, so I actually PARAPHRASED that thing before a hundred bedtimes--it was LONG after all. I think he must have been around five years old during that phase. It was shortly after we thankfully moved past the Disney version of The Three Little Pigs and right before the ever-so-much-fun lift-the-flap pirate book which was soon followed by the I Spy craze--still can't hardly BARE to LOOK at those infuriating things!

I had to pull that battered book out of the box and bring it back, if only to sneak back onto my OWN shelf. As I did so, I was caught by a colleague. I sheepishly said, "I just have to take this one back." And then scrambling for further explanation, "After all, I'm gonna want to read it to my GRANDchildren someday, ya know!" Nervous chuckle--he IS only 9 years old, remember?

She just smiled a BIG smile and said with a hint of melancholy, "That day will be here sooner than you know it."

And, looking at my almost fourteen year old daughter, I am quite afraid she's right.

Now, you'll have to excuse me. I have to go and READ Fudge-a-Mania with my son before bedtime.